Kombatants part 7

Kombatants

Despite his obvious appearance as a powerhouse character, Jax is one of the more versatile fighters in the game. He has a gun projectile attack exactly like Stryker's, and he has one of those ground pounding moves (literally called Ground Pound here) that cannot be sidestepped or blocked and hits the opponent from any location. These are comparatively weaker than his regular attacks, but it's something to keep in mind if your opponent insists in keeping wide open spaces between the two of you.

Though Jax's tonfa stance has no range, they're quick and easily enter into combos. His Watching You is very easy to execute and starts an air combo, which you can follow up with any other upper tier attack in Jax's moves list. For simplicity's sake, another Watching You is suitable and does a total of 36% damage. So with Jax, his weakness is midrange; use his special moves if you're far from your opponent, and relentlessly assault with the tonfas when you're engaged in close combat.

Kai is best used at a distance, somewhere between midrange and the maximum distance away from the opponent. His Spiked Club stance lacks the pizzazz of hammers, but it's just as limited in regards to the number of moves you can do with it. At beyond midrange distance, his Downward Fire Blast and Fire From Above can both be used to create a wall to preventing your opponent from getting too close without concerted effort. As the saying goes, a good defense is a good offense and these two moves are both offensive and defensive: they'll damage your opponent while keeping them away.

Kenshi is a midrange attacker. At far distances, he's prey to projectiles, with nothing to directly counteract with. However, he does have Mind Warp, which instantly whisks him off the screen and to reappear in front of his opponent. If you time it so that you use Mind Warp right at the end of the opponent's attack animation, you can counterattack with a combo.

Ideally, you'll always have Kenshi at midrange. His katana stance is best suited at this distance and his special moves, all of them revolving around telekinetic attacks are useless further out, and if used closer than midrange makes him vulnerable to counterattacks.

Shujinko is the oldest human combatant in the tournament and his experience shows through his extensive moves list. His special moves are a smorgasbord of moves from other similar humans: he has Scorpion's spear (Throw Spear), Sub-Zero's ice attack (Icy Breeze), Ermac's telekinetic lift (Opponent Slam), and Liu Kang's silly bicycle kick attack (Bike Kicks). Opponent Slam is best used when you have the sword equipped: after Shujinko lifts the opponent, she'll fall towards the ground very quickly and it's going to take a wide high attack to catch him (use Upward Moon Slice).

Shujinko has a huge amount of moves in his mantis stance that take at least four button presses. Take the time to memorize these so you can recall them easily in the heat of battle.